This solarpunk book of shadows will guide you in surviving and resisting climate crisis and dystopian political systems so you can take radical action towards a positive future. Longtime activist and practicing witch Justine Norton-Kertson introduces a fresh approach to witchcraft at a time when it’s desperately needed.

Drawing on the natural connections between modern paganism and the literary, artistic, and activist movement known as solarpunk, Norton-Kertson provides meditations and correspondences for developing a spiritual practice rooted in nature, the Sun, and a powerful belief in our ability to build a better world. Readers will also find a host of spells to use in the fight against climate change, fascism, and inequality. These politically conscious magickal practices forge a new spiritual praxis to guide us as we work together to envision and create the future we want to see.

Utopian Witch hits stores on July 23, 2024 and pre-orders are already shipping. If you missed the Kickstarter you can still get all the rewards on Pledgemanager

Watch the summer solstice LIVE from Stonehenge with the first of our two FREE live streams!

Wherever you are in the world, you won't miss a moment of this special occasion. Our cameras will capture views of Stonehenge set to a relaxing soundtrack, allowing you to connect with this spiritual place from the comfort of your own home. Our stream begins at 20:00 BST (this is 15:00 EDT/EST), with sunset occurring at 21:26 BST.

During springtime in the Northern Hemisphere, the Sun appears on the horizon farther north each day. Annually, around June 20 or 21, this motion appears to stop in what is known as the summer solstice. During that time, the Earth’s axis is angled toward the Sun, and the intensity of sunlight on the Northern Hemisphere is greatest.

As a historian of astronomy, I am interested in the role astronomical events had on ancient people and continue to have in modern times. My ancestors lived on the Central Mexican Plateau, where for many Indigenous cultures, both past and present, the rising and setting of the Sun during equinoxes and solstices were sacred events.

June 2024’s full Moon is the Strawberry Moon, and this year it coincides with the summer Solstice, which makes its appearance a little stranger — and darker — than usual. Read on to learn what’s going on with this year’s Strawberry Moon, how to get the best view, and how June’s full Moon may also have lent its name to a romantic tradition in the Middle Ages.

From gazing at the night sky while sleeping on her family’s rooftop in Palestine, to buying her first telescope on eBay in seventh grade (for the sky-high bid of $100), to earning her degree in astrophysics and becoming a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, Abuisnaineh has spent much of her life looking up. During the partial solar eclipse in October 2023, Abuisnaineh brought together her community with what may very well be a first-of-its-kind event in the country: a viewing party that also included the Islamic solar eclipse prayer: salat al-kusuf.

Atlas Obscura spoke with Abuisnaineh about the power of stargazing as a community, the shock of an old man witnessing an eclipse for the first time, and how her religion inspires her to never stop reveling in the majesty of the universe.

On April 8, 2024, millions of Americans will be able to see a rare celestial occurrence: a total solar eclipse.

It’s going to be awesome. If you’re in the center of the moon’s shadow, known as the totality, the sky will go dark for a few minutes in the middle of the day. The temperature will drop, stars will appear, and birds will become confused and start chirping their nighttime songs.

And it’s all because of a cosmic coincidence: From the Earth, the moon and the sun appear to be roughly the same size.

This will be the last total solar eclipse over the contiguous United States for 21 years. Don’t miss it!

A bioluminescent petunia could help people recognize plants for the complex creatures they are.

An eerie glow has been emanating from Wales' forests and rockpools for the country's annual dark skies week.

David Atthowe, a nature guide from Norwich, was invited to shine his ultraviolet (UV) torches on some of the best nature spots in Pembrokeshire and Monmouthshire.

His photos of temperate rain forest in Wales reveal shapes, structures and colours that rival a coral reef.

Big news: I’ve signed with Water Dragon Publishing to bring you my debut lunarpunk novel, The Working! I look forward to you meeting the coven who must thwart a looming eco-cataclysm and find the key to the bright future we all need. Expected launch: Summer 2024.

(No dragons in my book, but plenty of Witches!)

I liken the book to a contemporary The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow intersecting The City We Became by NK Jemisin.

Consumers in the United States can now pre-order a genetically engineered plant for their home or garden that glows continuously. At a base cost of US$29.00, residents of the 48 contiguous states can get a petunia (Petunia hybrida) with flowers that look white during the day; but, in the dark, the plant glows a faint green. Biotechnology firm Light Bio in Sun Valley, Idaho, will begin shipping a batch of 50,000 firefly petunias in April.

Engineered petunia emits a continuous green glow thanks to genes from a light-up mushroom.

Brightflame, whose upcoming workshop Learning From the Elements still has slots open, wrote about lunarpunk in a past blog post:

The genre (or subgenre) is new—at least, the label for it is new. Core to lunarpunk are hope and optimism. Like its hopeful, optimistic sibling solarpunk, lunarpunk is an evolving container, not easily defined and not concretized by definition. Jay Springett describes solarpunk as a container where some elements are pulled to the center as if by gravity of overlapping thought. Other elements float in and out at the edges, which are fuzzy, making for an amorphous and fluid container. With lunarpunk, even more so.

For me, lunarpunk

-illuminates the silvery shadows of solarpunk

-adds nonlinear, intuitive ways of thinking and feeling

-is magical

-speaks truth in non-Western-science ways of knowing

-creates paths to a just, regenerative world and bright futures

-not only centers environmental justice, it lifts social, economic, and all forms of justice and their intersectionality

-decenters humans in the web of life and illuminates relationships, communication, web-weaving among all beings

-holds the reality of different realms and communication across realms

Would you add to this list? How would you complete the sentence "For me lunarpunk ..." ?

I live in the US where aging is shameful, grieving is rude, and death is commodified. I don't think this perspective should be carried over. So, how could solarpunks do things differently?

My current vision involves a lunarpunk monastery. Gone are sterile funeral homes, silent graveyards, dogma and taboo. Instead, an eclectic community of death doulas serving others through the finality. The bodies of the dead become part of an ever expanding ancestral forest. A living cemetery for the living.

Housed would be thanatologists of every flavor: bookworms, artists, health practitioners, naturalists, mystics, and more. Maintaining libraries, gardens, and temples for public use. Facilitating psychedelic rituals for those with terminal illness and the bereaved. Providing funeral rites and hospice care. Hosting moonlit festivals, discussions, and support groups.

Wearing mothlike robes. Playing chimes at sundown corresponding to the phase of the moon. But I digress...

How do you imagine death and dying in a solarpunk society? Is the great unknown in the realm of lunarpunk?

The one-of-a-kind glow-in-the-dark playground Joya at Oran Good Park in Texas is now officially open. City officials at Farmers Branch, a town just 20 minutes outside Dallas, welcomed the public to the 18,000-square-foot park on Saturday, January 20.

Joya at Oran Good Park dubbed itself as the country's first all-accessible, glow-in-the-dark playground, according to a release from the city. While open during the day, the park comes alive during the evening with its glowing elements. The playground features a 27-foot futuristic sphere where children can climb inside, a zip line, a spin zone, glow seating, swings, and an obstacle course - all lit with colorful LED lighting.

On this episode, Ariel sits down with Justine Norton-Kertson, editor of the forthcoming BIOLUMINESCENT: A LUNARPUNK ANTHOLOGY and co-EIC of Solarpunk Magazine. They discuss what lunarpunk is in contrast to solarpunk, what inspired Justine to put together an anthology of lunarpunk fiction, and a sneak peek at some of the participating authors and the content that fans can expect to encounter!

(Note: This episode was originally posted on 10/31/22. Bioluminescent: A Lunarpunk Anthology is currently a longlist nominee for the British Science Fiction Association's award for Best Collection! Justine Norton-Kertson shares their perspective on lunarpunk as a burgeoning genre / movement , spirituality , and bioluminescent technology.

You can order Bioluminescent on e-book or paperback

Today Ariel sits down with Navarre Bartz to talk about solarpunk spirituality. Solarpunk’s emphasis on respecting and valuing human and non-human life includes the totality of a being’s existence, and that includes the “squishy bits” of the experience that we can’t quite quantify. Navarre recently hosted a series of guest posts on his blog, Solarpunk Station, all about the spiritual angle of solarpunk, and what a solarpunk style of spirituality might look like.

(mentions the recent book "Bioluminescence: A Lunarpunk Anthology around the 13 minute mark)

What happens in the ecocommunity when the sun goes down?

A gothic take on solarpunk.

An artistic, aesthetic, literature, and political movement founded on ecology, decentralization, non-hierarchy, mutual aid, individual liberty, liberatory technology, diversity, feminism, and the merging of art, science, and politics.

a sideblog by The Carbon Coast | In Solvoid, the sun stays below the horizon—the moon's light charges plants which glow beneath a veil of mysterious characters from witches, street gangs, gamblers and beyond.|

This tumblr blog seems to no longer be active but hosts links to lunarpunk imagery, writing and technology

This is part of a new feature where Solarpunk Presents brings you a bonus chat every month on different topic decided by our Patrons.

The very first topic of 2024 is LUNARPUNK - because, what even is it, exactly? How does it relate to solarpunk? Can it be described as a movement, or an aesthetic stance, or more of a vibe? What's going on with this nascent genre? Tune in to the discussion now and join the conversation!

To Know the Dark

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

—Wendell Berry, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (1998)

via Paul Bogard, The End of Night (2013)

As we are approaching the winter time with the solstice, I find myself wondering what to you is Lunarpunk in the winter time? What is something you add to the aesthetic in your eyes?

source

A solar storm forecast for Thursday is expected to give skygazers in 17 American states a chance to glimpse the Northern Lights, the colorful sky show that happens when solar wind hits the atmosphere.

"Yes, The Matrix Resurrections creates what is—at least in my estimation—a decidedly lunarpunk world and brings the budding aesthetic and subgenre to the big screen, if not for the first time, then at least in the most high profile example to date."

I have recently read Le Guin's The Dispossessed, which is a wonderful look into a Solarpunk world. However, an important critique that the book emphasizes is that this new Solarpunk society (or, well, an Anarchist society really) has produced a 'tyranny of bureaucracy' and a number of social pressures that stifle individual ambition and that punish those that are different from the norm.

Would you agree that Le Guin's critique can be useful for the solarpunk movement?

I have attached an analysis of the novel as well.

In the novel, the two most prominent slices of reality that require complementary interpretations are Shevek’s General Temporal Theory and his vision of anarchism on Anarres. Just as he sees Sequency and Simultaneity as complementary, so he sees individual freedom and social responsibility as the complementary manifestations of anarchy. Moreover, Shevek is able to comprehend anarchy in a complementary way only because his view is based on the theory of time that he has developed.